• by Wayne Friedman , April 2, 2015

NBC continues to claim major late-night dominance and big headlines when it comes to the still high-flying “Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.” But another network is finding something to crow about.

Analyzing its one-and-a half late-night time period -- 11:35 p.m. to 1:05 p.m -- where it programs, ABC says it comes in first in overall viewers -- averaging a Nielsen 2.399 million viewers for the hour-long “Jimmy Kimmel Live” and a half hour of “Nightline.”

NBC is at 2.281 million viewers, followed by CBS at 2.045 million against that hour-and-a-half period.

NBC still maintains strong domination when it comes to the key 18-49 viewers that TV marketers desire: The network averaged 852,000 18-49 viewers during the first three months of 2015, compared to 708,000 for ABC and 526,000 for CBS.

NBC has an even bigger command of all viewers when it comes to the first hour of late night -- “The Tonight Show” -- now averaging 3.915 million during the first quarter and down a bit from its overall season average of 4.011 million.

CBS’ “Late Show with David Letterman” was at 2.783 million (versus 2.754 million for the season) and “Jimmy Kimmel Live” at 2.744 million (against 2.769 million for the season).

Key for ABC is the half-hour period that “Nightline” runs against NBC’s “Late Night with Seth Myers” and CBS’ “Late Late Show.” Here, “Nightline” averaged 1.710 million versus 1.513 for NBC and 1.302 for CBS.

With regard to 18-49 viewers, “Tonight” has nearly double the numbers of second-place “Late Show,” with a Nielsen 1.12 rating/5 share to “Kimmel”s 0.63 rating/3 share. CBS’ “Late Show” is at 0.52/2.

For the 12:35 a.m. to 1:35 a.m. period, “Seth Meyers” leads among 18-49 viewers, with a 0.46/3 for the first quarter. “Nightline" is at 0.42/3 and “Late Late Show”, 0.31/2.